Body parts found at Dublin waste plant identified as male

Brian Hanrahan was led by a stranger two miles outside of the bustling French Quarter for a party.Getty

The human remains discovered last week at a waste recycling plant in Dublin belonged to a man, it was confirmed on Sunday.

Gardai (police) launched an investigation last Friday following the discovery of a leg by an employee at the Thornton's recycling facility in Ballyfermot in west County Dublin.

A human thigh was subsequently discovered at the Killeen Road plant and gardai have said they suspect there may be more body parts concealed in the mounds of trash.

The body parts were removed to Tallaght Hospital in Dublin, where a post-mortem examination was carried out by Deputy State Pathologist Dr. Michael Curtis.

On Sunday it was confirmed that DNA analysis had determined that the body parts are male and both come from the same body.

Although gardai are understood to suspect the human remains are those of a murder victim whose body was dismembered and dumped in trash in a bid to conceal the crime, the cause of death has yet to be determined.

A search of the plant is expected to continue for a number of days, as garda teams continue to comb through the vast mounds of waste.

According to RTE, a number of other items – some of which are believed to be human remains – have been recovered in the search.

However, no other identifiable limbs have been found.

Gardai are also understood to be probing the routes of the trucks whose refuse created the load in which the body parts were found, in a bid to determine where the remains might have come from.

Brian Hanrahan was led by a stranger two miles outside of the bustling French Quarter for a party.Getty